DeGale is making himself look bad by calling out Froch

By Thomas Cowan: James DeGale has announced he will be facing unknown Argentinian Pablo Farias on March 23rd. This is a disappointing choice of opponent because DeGale claimed he would be facing a world class fighter after vacating his European title to face better opponents. If DeGale had kept his European title he’d be facing #8 WBC contender Mouhamed Ali Ndiaye which would be ideal for DeGale considering that he’s trying to work his way towards a shot at the WBC title.

Instead, his rival George Groves will be fighting Senegalese born Italian Ndiaye for the vacant title. Groves has suggested that DeGale vacated to avoid Ndiaye, a suggestion that I found hard to agree with because I thought DeGale would be fighting someone decent like Brian Magee or Thomas Oosthuizen but choosing unranked Farias suggests that DeGale was worried about fighting Ndiaye after all.

After announcing the fight, DeGale decided to call out IBF super middleweight champion Carl Froch. Speaking to British newspaper The Sun DeGale talked about facing his fellow Brit after Froch fights rematches with Mikkel Kessler, Lucian Bute and Andre Ward. DeGale said, “I’ve read that after those three fights he will consider ending his career. All I am asking is for him fight me before hanging up his gloves. Looking at Froch, he is not the kind of man to swerve anyone or anything. Froch was always calling out Calzaghe but never got that fight — and I think he would have beaten him at that stage. It would be great if Froch stayed around long enough for us to meet.”

I don’t see a rematch between Froch and Bute happening because Bute isn’t showing any interest in taking another beating. If Froch beats Kessler it will probably lead to a rematch with Ward. Whether the Cobra wins or loses against Ward, there would be no point him facing DeGale. If there’s fans who don’t rate Froch, their opinion of him wouldn’t change if he knocked out DeGale because DeGale’s not very highly rated. It’s exactly the same situation as when Joe Calzaghe ignored Froch. Calzaghe knew that if Froch beat him it would ruin his legacy and if he beat Froch it would be no big deal because Froch had achieved very little in his career at that point.

I think Froch is more likely to face Groves than DeGale. Groves is #1 WBO contender so he’s set to fight WBO champion Arthur Abraham by the end of this year. I think that’s a winnable fight for Groves and if he held a world title, Froch might be tempted to fight him because he wants to become undisputed champion.

DeGale doesn’t really bring anything to the table as far as Froch is concerned and until he steps up the quality of his opponents and manages to win a world title he needs to keep his head down and forget about a domestic dust-up with Carl Froch.

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